1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to meat slicers used for slicing meat and, more particularly, to a sliced meat separating and guide device for such slicers, the device being designed to effectively separate sliced pieces of meat from a thin-bladed cutter of a slicer and to guide the sliced pieces in a desired direction during a meat slicing operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of meat processing machines, such as refrigerators, freezers, meat slicers, meat cutting machines, bone cutting machines, and fat separating machines, have been proposed and preferably used in the prior art.
The conventional meat slicer, used for slicing meat into thin pieces, typically comprises a thin-bladed cutter, a meat support, and a slice thickness adjusting plate. The meat support holds meat thereon and feeds the meat to the bladed cutter, thus allowing the blade to slice the meat into desired thin pieces. The gap between the slice thickness adjusting plate and the blade is controlled to set a thickness of sliced meat as desired.
During a meat slicing operation of such a conventional slicer, a water screen is formed between each of the sliced pieces of meat and the smooth surface of the blade due to moisture and blood laden in the meat. Such a water screen cooperates with a vacuum formed between each sliced piece of meat and the smooth surface of the blade, thus forming absorption force on the smooth surface of the blade. This finally allows the sliced meat to be undesirably attached under pressure to the smooth surface of the blade.
Such a conventional meat slicer thus forces a user to manually separate the sliced pieces of meat from the blade one by one during the meat slicing operation. However, it is difficult to quickly and precisely perform such a sliced meat separating action, and so the sliced pieces of meat may easily collect on the blade and may be pressurized, thus being reduced in taste and freshness.
That is, since the sliced pieces of meat are very thin and are laden with moisture and blood, they fail to be easily removed from the smooth surface of the blade, but are undesirably attached under pressure to the smooth surface of the blade due to both a water screen and a vacuum formed between the sliced meat and the smooth surface of the blade. When the blade, with the attached sliced pieces of meat on its smooth surface, is continuously rotated, the sliced pieces of meat undesirably fold and lump and are undesirably recut.
Such a problem is also experienced in conventional kitchen blades. In an effort to overcome such a problem, some kitchen blades having holes or blooding grooves have been proposed and used. The object of such holes or blooding grooves formed on the kitchen blades is to form a space between the sliced meat and the smooth surface of a blade and to eliminate a water screen between the sliced meat and the blade, thus finally allowing the sliced meat to be easily separated from the blade.
Such holes or blooding grooves somewhat accomplish their operational object in the case of kitchen blades. However, when an exceeding number of holes or grooves are formed on a kitchen blade, the structural strength of the blade is reduced. This may cause the blade to be easily broken when the blade is impacted. On the contrary, when the number of holes or grooves as less than a desired number, this enlarges the interval between the holes or grooves. In such a case, the holes or grooves may fail to desirably prevent the sliced pieces of meat from being attached under pressure to the smooth surface of the blade. The holes or grooves also cause a hygienic problem due to dregs settled in the holes. It is very difficult to remove such dregs from the holes or grooves. Such holes or grooves are not used in the high speed rotating blades of motored slicers since the holes or grooves undesirably generate pneumatic frictional noise and pneumatic frictional resistance, thus disturbing a smooth rotating action of the blade. In addition, such holes or grooves may cause the blade of a motored slicer to break, thus sometimes causing safety hazards to users.
In an effort to overcome such problems experienced in the conventional meat slicers, Korean Patent Application No. 98-32,948 discloses a motored slicer having a plurality of air jet nozzle on one surface of a high speed rotating circular or semicircular blade. In this slicer, pressurized air is ejected from the air jet nozzles and pneumatically separates the sliced pieces of meat from the smooth surface of the blade.
The above Korean slicer somewhat effectively separates the sliced meat from the smooth surface of the blade. However, this slicer has a complex construction, and so it is thus very difficult to fabricate the slicer. This slicer is also undesirably increased in manufacturing cost. Another problems of the above slicer resides in that it is very difficult to precisely control the air pressure capable of effectively separating the sliced meat from the blade.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sliced meat separating and guide device for meat slicers, which has a plate positioned around the blade in a way such that the horizontal and vertical positions of the plate relative to the blade are adjustable.
The device may comprise a concaved portion, which is formed along the inclined portion between the blade body and the sharpened edge of the blade. In such a case, a space is formed between the concaved portion and sliced meat, thus preventing a formation of a water screen between the sliced meat and the blade during a meat slicing operation. A shoulder is formed along the outside edge of the concaved portion, thus guiding he sliced meat outwardly from the blade. The sliced meat separating and guide device of this invention allows the sliced meat to be dropped from the blade onto conveyor unit while being spread out. The sliced meat is thus free from folding or lumping. This finally maintains a desired appearance of the sliced meat and allows the sliced meat to induce consumers to buy it.